Last



Feb. 23, 1937. wAY 2,071,400

LAST

Filed May 25. 1935' T Wan/f0)? Patented Feb. 23, 1937 UNITED STATES LAST John B. Hadaway, Swampscott, Mass, assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Paterson, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application May 25, 1935, Serial No. 23,353

8 Claims.

The present invention relates to lasts for making boots and shoes.

The first upper shaping operation in the manufacture of the more popular types of shoes is known as the pulling-over operation. This stretches the upper over the toe and tacks it to the last under the toe, but does not effect as tight longitudinal stretching over the whole length of the upper as is sometimes desired. It has long been recognized that a longitudinally extensible last would be of considerable value in effecting the longitudinal stretching of the upper, but such mechanically practical lasts as have heretofore been suggested, have been subject to the objection, among others, that the extension of the last rendered its shoe supporting surface discontinuous between the two portions separated in the extension, and thus interfered with the proper support of the shoe on the last.

It is an object of the present invention to remedy this difficulty by providing an extensible last having means for covering the opening between the separated parts when the last is extended. Preferably this means is formed as an apron or resilient plate spanning the opening and advantageously falling into a depression in one of the separated parts, so as to maintain a continuous shoe supporting surface on the extended last.

Advantageously, also, the extensible portion of the last is confined to its heel part, and this complete heel part is constructed to be removable from the shoe without disturbance of the forepart.

These and other features of the invention comprising certain combinations and arrangements of parts will be apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention shown in the drawing, in which Fig. 1 shows the last with its heel part collapsed, preparatory to its extension;

Fig. 2 shows the heel part extended;

Fig. 3 is a cross-section on the line IIIIII of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a section on the line IV-IV of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is an external View of the heel part 001- lapsed; and

Fig. 6 is an external view of the heel part extended.

In the following description such terms as up and down refer to the last in its right-side-up position, and not inverted, as shown in the drawing.

The heel part of the last comprises a frame having an upwardly and forwardly extending casting l0 joined integrally to a horizontal guide plate I2. The guide plate 12 has undercut edges 14, as shown in Fig. 3 and carries the thimble l6 which is shown as considerably wider lengthwise of the last than it is crosswise, in order to provide a large bearing surface for a correspondingly shaped jack pin. The member [0 has lateral wings l8 which run downwardly and backwardly toward the end of the guide plate I2.

The casting i0 is provided with a hole 20 opening into a recess 22 on the front side of the casting. A second recess 24 is also provided below the recess 22. These recesses are to accommodate the heads of the forepart pins to be described below. The front face of the casting I0 is also provided with two vertical narrow slideways 26, 28, in which slide the arms 30, 32 of the locking member 34 which is pressed downwardly by a spring 36 and has an up-and-down sliding movement limited by a pin 38 cooperating with a notch 40 in the arm 30. The front face of the casting I0 is covered by a cover plate 4! having two keyhole slots 42, 44 over the recesses 22, 24, respectively, the small ends of the slots being toward the top of the last.

These slots cooperate with two headed pins 46 cast in a block 48 pinned into a recess in the forepart by pins 50. In the position shown in Fig. 1 the necks of the headed pins 46 are resting in the upper small ends of the slots 42, 44, and holds the cover plate 40 and its attached casting l0 firmly to the forepart. When the casting l0 and cover plate 40 are slid upwardly and forwardly the heads of the pins 46 move into the large ends of the slots 42, 44 and the cover plate 40 and casting Hi can be removed from the forepart. Such sliding movement is prevented by a bolt 52 which is spring pressed into the large end of the slot 42, when the parts are in the Fig. 1 position. This bonding mechanism will be found described more at length in my copending application, Serial No. 9,631, filed March 6, 1935.

The bevel edged guide plate l2 has slidably mounted upon it the heel plate 54 the bottom of which is formed like an ordinary last heel end bottom. The heel plate 54 carries a shell 56 having the form of the sides and back of a last heel end. The lateral wings 58 of this shell extend forwardly under the fingers 60 of spring plates 62 fastened to the rear ends of the wings H3. The wings 58 are provided with depressions 64 at their front ends, in which the fingers 60 fall when the heel is slid back, as shown in Fig. 6.

Such backward sliding of the shell is effected by the jack shown in Fig. 1. This jack has a post 66 the upper end of which fits into the thimble I6,

which has a hole 68 in its rear face. The jack has a lever 18 pivoted at H and carrying a plunger 12 which can be moved through the hole 68 by pulling the treadle rod 14 which is connected to it by a bell crank 13 and link 15, thus pushing the shell backward from the position shown in Figs. 1 and to the position shown in Figs. 2 and 6. When such movement is effected the locking member 34, which has been resting (Fig. 1) against the upper face of the heel plate 54, slides past the front end of the heel plate (Figs. 1 and 5) into the position shown in Figs. 2 and 6. The locking member 34 and heel plate 54 are provided with little interlocking surfaces at 16 (Fig. 6) which engage as the shell and heel plate return slightly under tension of the shoe upper when the treadle rod 14 is released, thus preventing return of the locking member 34, the lower face of which is shaped to register with that of the heel plate 54 when in operative position.

The extension of the last leaves no aperture at the sides of the heel part owing to the guarding action of the plate 62, which, with the wings 56, forms a smooth lateral heel part surface at such times, the ends of the spring fingers 69 lying in the depression 64.

In making welt shoes, the last, with its heel part collapsed as in Fig. 1, has an insole attached at its toe and heel ends by tacks driven into the wooden forepart and into suitable tack plugs sunk in the metal of the heel part, and the upper is then placed on the last and pulled over. The pulling-over operation, in view of the shortness of the last, will not stretch the upper tightly throughout its whole length, and it may remain somewhat loose around the heel end, as shown in Fig. 1. The insole, being long enough to cover the last bottom when the heel part is extended to standard length, will bulge from the last bottom between the heel and the tip line, as shown in Fig. 1. In the use of this last, the shoe having first been pulled over, as shown in Fig. l, the heel part will then be extended as described above and shown in Fig. 2, the member 34 dropping into place and filling out the last bottom. This will bring the insole down to fit the last bottom. The lasting at the shank, toe and heel seat will then be performed, and the shoemaking finished as usual. The upper will have been well stretched longitudinally by the extension of the heel part of the last.

The removal of the illustrated last from the shoe is effected without collapsing the heel part of the last, by separating the plate 4| from the forepart pins 46 after depressing the plunger 52, and removing the heel part, as described above and in my prior application referred to. The heel part having been thus removed, the forepart can be drawn out. The heel part can be collapsed by pulling back the shell 56 a little to release the lock at 16, pressing back the member 34 and then pressing the shell 56 forward.

The last of the present invention will also be useful in making shoes with preformed uppers. Such uppers are molded at the toe and heel prior to their application to the last, and the expansion of the heel part of the instant last will stretch them adequately in a longitudinal direction preparatory to side lasting. The last is also useful in the manufacture of prewelted shoes, in which the welt is sewn to the upper before the shoe is placed on the last. The shortness of the instant last, when collapsed, facilitates its passage through the bottom periphery of a prewelted upper, and the extension of the last will stretch the upper adequately.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A last comprising a main portion and a second portion movable longitudinally of the last to lengthen or shorten the last, means for holding the last in lengthened position, and a shield comprising a plurality of resilient fingers mounted on the side of one of said last parts with the ends of the fingers resiliently resting on the surface of the side of the other last part, to cover the opening between the last portions when the last is in lengthened position.

2. A last comprising a main portion and a second portion movable longitudinally of the last to lengthen or shorten the last, and a locking member movable to a position between said portions when the last is in lengthened position, said looking member having its exterior surface formed as a continuation of the adjacent surfaces of the last portions.

3. A last comprising a forepart and a heel part separable therefrom while the last is in a shoe, the heel part comprising a frame attachable and detachable from the forepart and including a thimble, and a body slidable longitudinally of the last on said frame and having its outside surface shaped to the heel contour desired, a distance member mounted in said frame and slidable to a position between the frame and the front end of the said body when the body has been slid back, and a flexible apron member mounted on the frame and resiliently contacting with the side surface of the body to cover the opening between the frame and body when the last is thus lengthened.

4. A last heel part comprising a main frame, and a shell slidable longitudinally on the frame and having the external contour of the sides and rear end of a heel part, one of said parts having an apron at each side spanning the gap between the said parts when the shell is slid back and the other of said paits having depressions into which the ends of the aprons are received when the shell is slid back, to form a substantially unbroken heel part side surface.

5. Apparatus for use in making shoes, comprising a last-like form over which the shoe may be assembled and pulled over, said last-like form comprising a forepart member and a last-spindle-engaging member having predetermined constant longitudinal relation to each other, and a shell arranged to engage the inside of the counter portion of the shoe and movable longitudinally with relation to the last-spindle-engaging member to extend a pulled-over shoe lengthwise.

6. Apparatus for use in making shoes, comprising a last-like form over which the shoe may be assembled and pulled over, said last-like form comprising a forepart member and a last-spindle-engaging member having predetermined constant longitudinal relation to each other, a shell arranged to engage the inside of the counter portion of the shoe, and means for moving the shell rearwardly from the last-spindle-engaging member to stretch the rear end portion of the shoe lengthwise.

7 Apparatus for use in making shoes, comprising a last-like form over which the shoe may be assembled and pulled over, said form comprising a forepart, a heel part having a. spindle socket,

and a shell constituting the rear end face and at least a, portion of the seat face of the heel end, the shell being longitudinally movable relative to said heel end to extend the shoe lengthwise.

8. Apparatus for use in making shoes, comprising a last-like form over which the shoe may be assembled and pulled over, said form comprising a forepart, a heel part having a spindle socket, a shell constituting the rear end face of the heel end, and means for moving the shell rearwardly relative to the heel end to stretch a shoe on the form lengthwise.

JOHN B. HADAWAY. 

